Luanda Casella

The environmental ca­tastrophe is completed, our civilisation extinct. Billions of people have died, and the few survivors desperately cling to the remnants of what once was. «Ferox Tempus» (Latin for «wild time») is the name of the world in which our worst night­ mares come true. We are in a video game which takes place in the year 2062. The virtual game character, played by the author and performer Lu­anda Casella, is named Lua and dates from the 1980s. During the game, she prepares for a dysto­pian future: The voice of an invisible trainer sends her from level to level, from one fight for survival to the next, again and again until total exhaustion.

In her artistic works, Casella draws on pop culture formats for stories that speculate on cur­rent social issues. The Belgium-­based Brazilian author and performer largely relies on the imagi­native power of the audience and, in a reduced setting, allows text and sound to speak for them­selves. In «Ferox Tempus», her latest work, she transports us back in time with 80s synthesiser sounds and other pre-­digital elements and allows us to explore a bleak future with the mindset of a gamer.

Casella’s view into the future from the past is cleverly constructed and grippingly staged. Can Lua survive this existential game? (se)